Esther Ghey, the mother of the murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, and the Oscar-winning actor Kate Winslet are calling on Keir Starmer to legally ban smartphones in schools, warning current guidance against allowing phones has created a “postcode lottery”.
As children in England and Wales return to classes this week, Ghey said research showed that only 11% of secondary schools were currently implementing a full ban on bringing in smartphones or requiring them to be left in a secure and inaccessible place all day.
She said a ban would have “solved so many issues” for her daughter, who was “sucked away from society and into the online world where she was at risk of so many harms”.
Brianna, 16, a transgender girl from Warrington, was described as addicted to her phone. She was killed by two teenagers in February 2023, one of whom she believed to be her friend.
The government has resisted banning smartphones in schools, insisting headteachers are able to take their own actions. It issued guidance in 2024 that “schools should develop a mobile phone policy that prohibits the use of mobile phones … throughout the school day, including during lessons, the time between lessons, break times and lunchtime”.
But subsequent research among 2,467 secondary schools in April by the children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, found that while 90% had some restrictions on phone use, only 3.5% banned phones from school grounds and only 7.9% required pupils to hand in their phones for the whole day.
This summer, Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, said schools needed freedom to implement guidance in the way that worked for them, but added: “If schools need more help to [take action] then we will look very carefully at that because we want to make sure that classrooms are free of smartphones.”
The new Phone Free Education campaign is calling for ministers to introduce a full legal ban including funding for schools to pay for a lockable pouch or similar alternative.
Other backers include the actor Stephen Graham, who appeared in the Netflix drama Adolescence, which dealt with online radicalisation of children, the boxer-turned-mental health campaigner Frank Bruno, the singer Will Young, the website Mumsnet and Jonathan Haidt, the author of The Anxious Generation, who says smartphones have caused an epidemic of child mental illness.
In an open letter to Starmer and the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, they said: “Most schools are relying on children to resist a temptation even adults struggle with. It’s not fair, and it’s not working.”
Calling for a statutory ban, they said: “We know it can work – schools that can afford this approach are reporting improvements in both staff and student wellbeing.”
Winslet, who won a Bafta for her role in the Channel 4 drama I Am Ruth, where she plays a mother struggling with a daughter consumed by social media, said: “Every child deserves to be in classrooms that are free from the distraction and highly addictive nature of smartphones. A statutory ban would be a vital step towards protecting the mental health of young people and preserving every child’s right to realising their fullest potential during these precious and integral years.”
Ghey said she wanted children to be free to interact face-to-face throughout the school day, “building relationships with peers” instead of being subject to content arriving in the classroom and playground through phones, which she said could include child sexual abuse images, pornography and illegal drug markets.
Last year, Brianna’s secondary school in Warrington, Birchwood community high school, introduced a pouch system, requiring pupils to lock away their phones. Ghey said the teachers had noticed how noisy the dinner hall became as children socialised face-to-face, “laughing, joking, probably some of them were arguing, but this is all part of growing up and figuring out how to live in society”.
Brianna’s phone use at school led to her being excluded.
“There were 120 safeguarding issues around Brianna’s phone use, which ranged from child sexual exploitation to the issues around her eating disorder and self harming,” Ghey said. “There were also 116 behaviour incidents logged, which [included] Brianna going to the toilet to film Tiktok videos, refusing to put a phone away in class and refusing to go into class because she just wanted to go and sit in the exclusion unit on a phone.
“None of us knew what to do. I just think that if we’d had this [ban], then it would have just solved so many issues … she was just kind of sucked away from society and into the online world where she was at risk of so many harms. She should have been in school, she should have had her phone away, she should have been socialising with peers and focusing on education.”
A government spokesperson said: “Schools already have the power to ban phones. Research from the children’s commissioner shows that 99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools already have policies restricting the use of mobile phones.
“We support headteachers to take the necessary steps to prevent disruption, backed by clear guidance and have also brought in better protections for children from harmful content through the Online Safety Act.”
